Saturday, May 2, 2009

LA County Arboretum gets its green on

CC and I joined my friend Pat from Eating L.A. for an afternoon stroll around the grounds, and not only did we see some aggressive geese (who knew they hissed?!), we also spotted "Entourage" star Adrian Grenier checking out how a local designer's garden grows.

What fascinated me most was the Queen Anne Cottage, seen in the background in the above pic, which is most famous for its co-starring role in the late '70s/early '80s TV show "Fantasy Island." I had no idea this is where they filmed that and was desperately looking for "Tattoo was here" scrawled somewhere on the house itself.Apparently, the original owner, Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin (presumably no relation to those Baldwins) built the home in the late 1800s solely for entertaining. There isn't even a kitchen in the cottage, and all the cooking was prepared at a nearby adobe house.

The garden show itself was lovely, offering everything from plants to crafts to designer garden displays. The setting was perfect, too, amid the sprawling and lush botanic grounds. There were even several peacocks, CC's new favorite animal, strolling on the grass and walkways, yelping every step of the way.